Four pairs of eyes stared at the small TV sitting on a table in the break room. Nick made a show of pushing his jaw closed with one hand, then shook his head, whispering to Warrick, "Dude, that can't really be her."

Warrick took his eyes off the screen only long enough to give Nick a mocking look. "Girl can act, man. You never know what you don't know till you know it." His attention was returned to the tape that was playing just as the on-screen Sara gave Jake Chaunce an amazingly believable "hot and bothered" look.

Catherine was laughing. "Go Sara! Man, what are boobs for, if not to use to catch criminals and boyfriends. She's brilliant!" Just as she was beginning to laugh hysterically, her cell phone rang shrilly. "Damn!" She hit "pause" on the VCR and, flipping open the offending object, tried to control her laughter. "Willows," she managed.

Her laughter suddenly became muffled as she put a hand over her mouth. "Mmph! Uh, hi Grissom. Uh, what's up?" The men strained to hear what Grissom was saying, but Catherine pressed the phone closer to her ear, stonewalling them. "Oh, nothing good. We were just watching, uh, America's Funniest Home Videos. Yeah, reruns." She stopped talking and pulled the phone away from her ear for a moment, giving it a quizzical look, then brought it back to listening position. "You want what? . . . Um, I guess, but why do you . . .ok, ok. Fine. I'll ask."

She put a hand over the mouthpiece and addressed Nick and Warrick. "Hey guys, Grissom wants to know if you two can keep Sara occupied for about two hours after shift ends."

Warrick raised his eyebrows. "Not if she doesn't want to be kept occupied, Cath."

Catherine shrugged helplessly. "Try. He's got some plot going on that he won't tell me about and he needs her out of the house. Take her out to breakfast or something." Speaking into the phone again, she told Grissom, "They say they'll try, but no promises if Sara gets stubborn. Uh-huh, ok. Are you really not going to tell me what's going on? . . . No way, are you serious?" She let out a bark of laughter and said, "Ok then. Yeah, half an hour. See you then."

She closed the phone and turned back to her audience. "Well boys, I'm off. Gotta go help Grissom plot and plan. Keep Sara busy – Grissom or I will call you when we're ready for her." She smiled brightly and retrieved her purse from the table. "Behave, and if she asks, tell her that I had to go check out an old scene or something. Hell, tell her I'm off to have hot sex with an old boyfriend, just don't tell her I'm with Grissom."

"I'd hope the two are mutually exclusive," Warrick said with a humorous look at her.

"Ugh, sex with Grissom? Never!" She shuddered delicately and left the room, heading for the exit.

Nick pushed "stop" on the VCR and turned to Warrick. "What was that all about? Grissom's plotting and Catherine's thinking about having sex with him – or, to be more specific, thinking about not having sex with him?"

Warrick laughed. "Dunno about the plotting, but I can promise you that the idea of Grissom naked skeeves her. And me. And you too, I'd hope."

"Well, yeah. So what do you think they're up to?"

"No idea. Maybe he's got those Trading Spaces people coming in to re-do the house or something."

Nick let out a surprised noise, then choked back a laugh. "Oh god, can you just see the two of them living in a house with hay bales as decoration and weird murals painted on the walls?"

"Hmm. Since when do you know what goes on on that show, bro? At least I have the excuse that Cat makes me watch it."

"Ahem." Nick put a finger under his collar and ran it around, trying to loosen the suddenly constricting material. "I, uh, just flip by it every now and then." He quickly hit "play" on the remote control, hoping to distract Warrick.

"You guys watch those girlie decorating shows?" Sara appeared in the doorway, an incredulous expression on her face. "Even I don't watch them, and I'm a girl!" Entering the room, she caught sight of the television. "Uh, why are you guys watching a tape of the interrogation I did tonight?"

The men exchanged looks, wondering how much of their conversation Sara had heard. A silent decision was made and Nick jumped up and approached her. "Well, you know, we don't get to see you acting like a girl that often, so we take advantage of it when we can. And MAN, was that a great performance. O'Reilly brought it in here and told us we needed to watch it." He threw an arm around her shoulders. "Our little CSI, all grown up and tempting dirty rapists."

Sara laughed and pushed at him. "Well it worked, didn't it? No fair making fun of me when something I do works like it's supposed to."

Nick help up his hands in surrender. "Duly noted. So Sar, what are you doing after shift?"

Sara blinked. "Um, I was planning on going home and going to sleep. Why, what are you doing after shift?"

Warrick interrupted Nick's response with a laugh. "Since when do you sleep, Sara? You know you're just gonna go home and bug Grissom about a dog."

"Nothing wrong with that. Dogs are good."

"Well," Nick said, "why don't you come get some breakfast with us first? I'd swear you're getting skinnier, I don't think Grissom's feeding you enough. Me and Warrick'll take you to IHOP and get you stuffed on their fruit pancakes. How's that sound?"

"Hmmm . . ." Sara thought for a minute. On one hand, IHOP's blueberry pancakes sounded really good. Oooh, or maybe chocolate chip pancakes. But on the other hand, Grissom was waiting at home for her, and it wouldn't be kind of her to get a great breakfast and leave him to eat cereal.

"Let me call Grissom and see what he's doing," she said finally. "Maybe he can come with us."

"Aw, Sara! We never get you alone anymore, you and Grissom are attached at the hip. Come on and have breakfast with just 'the boys' again. Grissom's probably asleep anyway since he had the night off." He grinned. "Besides, you don't want to act whipped and start calling him for permission to do everything."

He'd struck a nerve with that one, Sara acknowledged to herself. "Ok, ok. We'll go, just the three of us. But you're paying," she added, looking from Nick to Warrick and back.